


The Rangers on the Beach

by PunkHazard



Category: JoJo no Kimyouna Bouken | JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Crossover, Everybody Lives, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-15
Updated: 2013-12-15
Packaged: 2018-01-04 18:21:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1084197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PunkHazard/pseuds/PunkHazard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Quiet walks on the beach are hard to come by lately, though it doesn't stop Josuke from <em>trying</em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Rangers on the Beach

Quiet walks on the beach are hard to come by lately, though it doesn't stop Josuke from _trying_. Of course, today he nearly breaks his toe on a piece of a scrap metal buried just under the sand, and when he picks up the debris to trash it, what catches his eye isn't the shadow looming just underwater in Morioh Bay or the other bits of titanium scattered along the coast.

It's a dude in some sort of plastic-y armor, lips blue from the cold, dragging two identical guys behind him out of the sea by their collars before he stumbles over a small dune, knees buckling, and lands face-first in the wet sand. 

Josuke sighs, but he quickens his pace to a brisk jog, then a flat-out run when the sand around them begins to turn black-red. 

It's worse than it looks from a distance.

Red outfits have a tendency to obscure other red things-- like blood. Like muscle with skin flayed away and bits of twisted armor buried deep inside flesh. They're brothers (or clones)-- Josuke can tell that much, with their identical noses and hair and strikingly similar faces. One of them has a skull that's half-caved in and a gaping hole in his side, bleeding staunched by a dented chunk of armor. Another has what looks like half his jaw missing, both with a limb or two crushed into pulp.

The least-injured of them is still lacking a good piece of the armor on his shoulders and back, deep gashes around flecks of white where the bones of his scapula are visible. His eyes are narrowed into slits, voice so quiet Josuke can barely hear him over the crashing waves. It's-- English, which was never his strong suit but he knows at least three of the words: 'help', 'them', and 'please'.

Crazy Diamond materializes instantly and Josuke hopes the other two are still alive, even with their hearts and breaths stopped-- but he doesn't hesitate. The stand restores them: bends metal back into place, repairs crushed organs, closes wounds, knits bones and carefully revives damaged neurons until all three are out of _immediate_ danger from anything but hypothermia. Josuke whips out his phone and dials the one adult in his life who knows how to handle things that crawl out of the ocean.

「What,」 Jotaro says.

「There's something in the bay,」 Josuke tells him, 「some people. You should probably get down here.」

「Check for more.」

Click.

His nephew never was much of a talker.

Josuke trots along the waterline to two greenish lumps still half-submerged. They're wearing stuff made of the same material as the other three, somewhat less damaged but both with flesh raised in blistering welts so their faces are unrecognizable, like boiling water's been dumped on them. Still, impossibly, when Josuke restores their bodies, drains their lungs and Crazy Diamond thumps them hard on their diaphragms, they both begin to breathe.

He moves on quickly, gesticulating at the the brothers lying further up along the sand (both man and woman begin trekking up there immediately) and then wading into the shallows when two more bodies wash up. These two have mismatched armor-- at least in color. The rest of it's been melted into a shapeless mass, the people themselves with skin and hair burned away (both on only one side; Josuke wants to heave, but he calls on Crazy Diamond instead).

He can't feel his legs below his thighs by the time he's waded back to shore, the two men in black and gray-green, respectively, already back on their feet and trailing in his wake.

"Where are we?" the younger one asks. "And how the bloody hell did you do that?"

Josuke sighs. "This," he says, waving a hand in the general direction of his hometown, "Japan. Morioh. Good... nice town."

「We owe you our lives,」 Stacker answers in Japanese, cheek twitching slightly when Josuke's entire face lights up. 「My name is Stacker Pentecost, this is Chuck Hansen. The man and woman are Aleksis and Sasha Kaidanovsky, and the three brothers are Wei Cheung, Hu and Jin. Triplets. In Japan, they're better known as the Tang brothers.」

「Oh man,」 Josuke answers, 「I'm so glad you speak Japanese. You know them?」

It doesn't take a whole lot of mental work for Stacker to realize that this isn't, perhaps, the world he's always known. The beach is unpolluted except for Jaeger scraps still littering the sand, the water clear, houses in the distant town the picture of idyllic suburbia. This is coastal Japan; this is coastal Japan in a world without kaiju. 「We work together,」 he answers carefully.

Jotaro is already kneeling over the Weis when Josuke and company trudge back up the beach, checking their pulses. 「They should be awake,」 he tells Josuke without looking up, 「but they're all running a fever.」

「What? Crazy Diamond doesn't work like that. They should be totally okay.」

Star Platinum materializes-- Josuke notices, but the newcomers don't. The stand sifts through a few handfuls of sand, then zeroes in on the triplets' uniforms, reaching between the gaps in their armor to extract a sliver of metal from each of their battlesuits. 「They're lucky,」 Jotaro says after a few seconds of silence, 「Stand users are drawn to one another.」 

Chuck opens his mouth-- but he shuts it when Stacker flashes him a warning look. Jotaro tips the bill of his cap back and looks up, stands and extends his hand to Pentecost. In smooth American English, "My name is Jotaro Kujo. If you have time to speak, I'd appreciate it if you'd come with us."

"Of course," Pentecost answers, "we don't exactly have a place to go until we find out exactly where we are."

Jotaro's expression changes, minutely, when he processes Pentecost's accent; it sounds like his grandfather's. "I've rented out a house for my stay in Morioh," he says stiffly, "there's space, and your friends will be out of commission for a while."

"You've seen this before," Pentecost states more than asks as Jotaro hefts Cheung onto his shoulder and Crazy Diamond helps scoop up the younger two, balancing them on Josuke's shoulders. 

「But how are they still _alive_ ,」 the younger Jojo groans, once Jotaro's finished explaining stands to the Marshal. They're already about halfway to Jotaro's place, a roomy house (though not for long), sparsely furnished but comfortable, relatively speaking.

「The temperature of Morioh Bay in the winter is sub-freezing,」 Jotaro answers matter-of-factly, not even breathless from carrying the remaining triplet while Star Platinum gives the large Russian man a supporting shoulder, 「the cold may have shocked their bodies into stasis.」

「Kept us alive long enough to be healed.」

Chuck exchanges a confused look with the Kaidanovskys, both of whom shrug. The Marshal is not in the habit of translating for his Rangers; collectively, they speak enough overlapping languages that at least one pilot would be able to translate for the others, but Sasha pointedly clears her throat and gestures at the unconscious triplets. "Is rude to have private conversation in public," she says.

Pentecost gives her an apologetic nod. "It's winter, the cold kept us alive along enough for this young man to heal us with his stand."

"Sir," Chuck says nervously, "you seem awfully calm about this stands and alternate dimensions thing."

"You seem very calm about existence of kaiju," Aleksis counters before Pentecost can. "Not so for us who were old enough to remember life before, was just as unbelievable when first kaiju attacked. This? This is not so bad."

Pentecost says in the Joestars' defense, "Well, they're also pretty calm about Jaegers in the bay and a bunch of strangers washing up on the beach."

Jotaro smirks, eyes hidden in the shadow of his cap. "We've seen stranger things," he says casually.

「Kaiju,」 Josuke asks, turning on Stacker, wide-eyed, 「like the movies?」

「It's a long story.」

* * *

Cheung wakes up first, in unexpectedly little pain. He glances around the room for his brothers, vaults over a low wooden table to reach Jin, flings his blanket away and roughly pushes him onto his back. Jin starts with a yelp, but complies when he recognizes his brother's face, and he's blinking in surprise down at his torso as his arms are tugged away from his chest. 

Unbruised, with no fresh wounds-- Jin explodes from his spot on the mat to land on his knees next to Hu's futon, shaking him awake while Cheung peels away his blanket and pushes his t-shirt up, bracing for the sight of his torn-open belly, viscera spilling out of it, but seeing nothing but smooth skin. His old and familiar scars are still visible, stretched over his ribs. 

「What,」 Hu slurs in their native Shanghainese as he blinks awake ( _Lazy bastard_ , both his brothers hiss), 「are you two doing?」

Jin makes a strangled sound in the back of his throat and throws his arms around Hu's neck, all his weight on his brother's chest. Cheung breathes for what feels like the first time since Otachi's tail clocked Crimson Typhoon over her conn-pod, one hand settling on Jin's shoulder and the other gripping Hu's wrist. Hu grins as he sits up and pulls Jin into a tight hug, meeting Cheung's eyes over his shoulder. 「See,」 he murmurs breathlessly, 「you two always worry about nothing.」

Jin lets go of Hu, launches himself at Cheung and drags his (not actually his-- none of them own clothes with hearts on them) shirt up over his shoulders and prods at the unbroken skin.

「Oh,」 a woman says from the door, 「you're finally awake.」

Hu sucks a breath in through his teeth, still not fully awake yet, but he steps easily into his usual role. 「Ah... we're in Japan? Apologies for intruding.」

「Not at all,」 the woman says, looking at them curiously, 「the others are waiting for you.」

「Others,」 Cheung repeats.

「A Russian couple, and two other men.」

Hu frowns, switching quietly back to Chinese. 「Kaidanovksys... and the Hansens?」

「So Hong Kong could be--」

「I got it,」 Jin interrupts, flashing her a cheeky grin, 「we're in heaven, and you're the angel here to greet us?」 Both brothers flash him an exasperated look, but he only smirks back. There are times and places to forego politeness for being a charming asshole, and Jin usually knows when it'll benefit them most.

「Higashikata Tomoko,」 she says, returning Jin's comment with a flush, pressing her palm to her cheek in the very picture of flattered embarrassment as she quickly turns away and leads them to the kitchen, 「and you'll be happy to hear you're all still alive.」

「Mom,」 Josuke whines when Tomoko joins the congregation in Jotaro's kitchen, 「it's okay if you go home. We can take care of them fine.」

「You ask me for six futons,」 she retorts as she picks up her bag to leave, already breezing out the door, 「and you're not even going to let me see who's using them? Fine, I don't care.」

「Whoa,」 Hu says, looking around the table, at the Rangers he's only ever seen in uniform dressed down in civvies and looking more relaxed than he's ever seen. He gives Chuck, Josuke and Jotaro a nod, then, 「Marshal. Lieutenants.」

"Welcome back," Pentecost says, gesturing at the only two men unfamiliar to the triplets. "Higashikata Josuke and Kujo Jotaro."

「Nice to meet you.」

"How long were we--"

"You have been out for a week," the Marshal informs them.

Hu's voice is two octaves above normal when he asks, "A _week_?"

\--I didn't know he could make a sound like that,-- Aleksis mutters to Sasha.

「Wait, who changed us?」

"As I was saying," Jotaro pointedly adds, tilting his head at three empty chairs around the table for the triplets, handing Cheung a stack of paperwork and information, "the Speedwagon Foundation will make sure you're all taken care of-- financially-- until we figure out whether or not we can send you home."

「So no one's going to answer my question,」 Jin sighs.

Stacker explains, "In the meantime, I'll be meeting with officials in the SWF and helping with research. The six of you will stay here."

Cheung squints at the first page, then flips to a section about local population statistics and quickly scanning the kanji. "Here being... uh, Duwang?"

"Morioh," Hu corrects, glancing over his arm. 「There's furigana right there.」

「You read it, then.」

「Fine, give it to me.」

Jin leans heavily on his brother, propping his chin on Hu's shoulder. Cheung slings his arm over from the other side, watching their faces. Aleksis and Sasha exchange indulgent smiles (they'd had plenty of time to catch up and discuss their situation already-- it almost seems cruel to toss the brothers into the deep end, but they seem used to it, already); Pentecost nods, almost to himself, and crosses his arms over his chest until the triplets have finished reading the paperwork. 

"We understand," Hu says after a few seconds, glancing around the table, "and we're grateful for the support. But can anyone tell us what's going on back home?"

"I was sure it was going to be you," Jin says, canting his head at Chuck, "and Sergeant Hansen, if anyone."

"Long story, mate."

Sasha chimes in, "All is well according to Marshal."

"I have every confidence Miss Mori and Mister Becket were able to close the Breach," Pentecost says reassuringly when the triplets' brows furrow in confusion. "Sergeant Hansen was injured during the double event, so I piloted Striker Eureka with Chuck."

"We detonated our payload to clear the way for them," Chuck grumbles with a proud turn to his expression, "so they damn well better have blown up that bloody dimensional rip, is all I'm saying on this."

He gets three long, considering looks. Striker Eureka's been on several drops with Crimson Typhoon, all of them successful, and the Weis have always known him to be a great pilot; emotional maturity, on the other hand, was never his strong point. That, and self-sacrifice. The triplets have always been pretty good at re-evaluating people, though.

"It's been a pleasure to fight alongside everyone here," Hu says politely, "I'm glad to see you all alive and well. Is it really 1999?"

"We would've been born last year," Jin laughs, turning a teasing grin on Chuck, "and your parents haven't even met yet."

"In any case," Pentecost says, bringing the conversation back to its original point, "Mr. Kujo has to speak with you three. The Kaidanovskys will show you where all six of you are staying once you're done here. Hansen, you're with me."

Sasha punches Jin lightly on the shoulder as Chuck stands to speak with the Marshal in the next room, her version of a welcome back-- Jin clutches his arm and grimaces in response, then sticks his tongue out at her. Hu catches Aleksis's eye, gives them both a nod and says, "Our last drop. My brothers and I should've been more careful."

"Not your fault," Sasha snaps, waving her hand dismissively. "the Marshal, he says scientist drifted with kaiju brain, probably gave away Jeager weak points. Should always be careful, however."

Hu snorts, 「Never did like him.」

"Our part in history of Kaiju War is over anyway," Aleksis rumbles, sharing a tender look with Sasha. "Is time to move on. Maybe we go to Russia of this world to settle down if they do not find way to send us back."

"We'll miss you," Jin tells them sincerely (he was always Sasha's favorite), "and we'll visit, if you do."

"Too early for that kind of talk," Cheung cuts in, standing when Jotaro enters the room again, Pentecost and Chuck on his heels. They switch places with Marshal and Ranger, the eldest triplet calling over his shoulder, "We'll be back soon."

「Stands,」 Jotaro says with the air of someone who's explained the topic too many times already, 「are a manifestation of a person's power over a form of energy called the 'Ripple'. You three gained it by being pricked with a certain arrow.」

「Okay,」 Jin answers, all three brothers disturbingly calm about the whole affair, 「so how do we use it?」

「You'll see,」 Jotaro says cryptically.

Star Platinum emerges fist-first from his chest, far slower than usual but quickly enough to startle all three triplets back several steps, throwing their arms out to cover each other with more force than strictly necessary. All of them end up falling backwards in almost comedic sync, just as a shape looms up from behind, enormous by any measure for a Stand. It deflects Star Platinum's first blow with one armored appendage, attacks with a buzzsaw-shaped hand and when Jotaro backs down before Star Platinum can be cut, the mech has its arms extended over its triplets, mono-eye flashing a dangerous red.

「Crimson Typhoon?!」

The Stand splits into three identical pieces as the brothers untangle their arms and pick themselves up. Crimson Typhoon's components are smaller, with rounded shoulders and armor but the same conn-pod type, each one returning to hover by a triplet. The one near Jin curls itself into a sphere, seams perfectly matching a slightly larger-than-average basketball's and fits itself under his arm. Cheung's clings onto his back, peering over one shoulder, and seems to make eye contact with the Stand that's latched itself onto Hu's waistband.

Jotaro's lip quirks into a barely-visible smirk at the Wei brothers' expressions of delighted awe. 「They're called Stands because they'll 'stand by' you. Some turn on their user, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. Damage to a Stand will reflect on you, so don't get careless.」

Jin hefts his mini-Stand between his hands, then clutches it to his chest. 「What do we call these little guys?」

「Anything you want.」

「'Space Jam'?」

「That wasn't even a good movie,」 Hu sighs.

「Please. It was a _great_ movie.」

Both younger triplets turn on Cheung, who says diplomatically, 「Crimson Typhoon when they're big and Space Jam when they're small. Okay?」

「Okay.」 

「Ugh. Fine.」 

「And,」 Cheung says next, addressing Jotaro, 「the one who healed us?」

「You want Josuke.」

「Thanks.」


End file.
